Part 28: Operational Report: 03/01/42

One of the freighters on the Sidney to Port Moresby route is attacked and sunk by a Jap sub. The three torpedo hits she took did not leave her with much chance of survival.







Off the coast of Japan, the Stingray gets fed up of trying to use her torpedoes, and attacks a cargo ship with her main gun. She expends all the ammunition she is carrying on board, but fails to do any real damage to the target.



The Pike attempts to sink a ship off Korea, but both of her torpedoes are duds or miss. The Skipjack near Japan also has problems with faulty ordinance.



She makes another pass at this ship, she has fired eight torpedoes and gotten four hits, all of which turned out to be duds.
Never forget, Our weapons are made by the lowest bidders.





The night bombardments of Bataan are increasing, it's now thought that the enemy are basing their planes off captured bases in northern Luzon.



This of course does not mean that the enemy have let up on the morning bombardments, just that they feel that the can continue their attacks over twenty four hours due to their closer bases and
reduced flight times.

The enemy begins their attack on Clark Field today, but are held back by our forces.








The bombing of Rangoon continues, and we lose another plane and a ship to the attacks. The need to supply the troops here is causing us some losses, but we cannot very well let ten thousand men starve.







Enemy ships are detected approaching Nemlea near Ambon, and planes from the airbase there go in to try and sink them, being old level bombers, they have little chance of hitting anything.



After this they begin to unload troops onto the island across the sea from out main base. They capture it quickly, as it is completely undefended, did the Japanese land in the wrong place?

While this is happening, the carriers that have taken up station in a bay north of Celebes continue to launch attacks on Balikpapan – this time coordinating with ground based planes.



Then the planes from the escort carrier find Task Force Z.



Despite their small numbers, the Japanese planes manage to get through the flack put up by the Allied ships and get two hits on the battle cruiser Repulse – our current flagship in the area. A return attack in the afternoon is less successful, as flack from the Vampire to shoots down another of the attacking planes, but this flight is reduced down to five Zeros and three Kates – the majority of the enemies planes having been damaged in the morning attack.

Japanese forces take Kuala Lumpur today, attacking a force four times their size and capturing two thirds of it, these men have been hounded hundreds of miles south, and their morale is now at breaking point.



The enemy are now within two hundred miles of Singapore. To the north in Temulor, a much larger enemy force takes the city, both sides loosing around five hundred men each.



across the sea, we also lose control of Singakawang to the enemy attacks.







That was not a good day, we have suffered heavy losses on the ground, lose a number of bases - and our Javan flagship has been torpedoed by the enemy – and this time, its not a near miss as it was last month at Singapore.



Ship and plane losses have been low, but we've had a really bad day on the ground.









The Repulse is in a lot of trouble, she's taking on a whole load of water and is several days at reduced speed from port – and Soerabaja is not built to take ships of her size, so only minimal repairs can be done, then she will need to brave the open sea to Cape Town – a journey that the Prince of Wales began days ago, and has still not completed. This means that these ships are now out for at least three months, and the British Navy is much weaker in the area.

The rest of Task Force Z is on its way towards the enemy carrier for some revenge.